The San Diego County Board of Supervisors has been praised for its financial stewardship but critiqued for its absence of diversity: All five supervisors are white, Republican, San Diego State University alumni who have served together since 1995.

When retiring Supervisor Pam Slater-Price endorses her potential successor this week, she is expected to break with that tradition by spurning congressional aide Steve Danon, a white, Republican SDSU graduate who spent nearly seven years as a staffer for two of her board colleagues.

Danon came out as a challenger to Slater-Price two years before she announced plans to step down from the north-coastal seat — and continued his attacks even after she said she wouldn’t seek re-election.

Although Danon was first, and has secured the county Republican Party endorsement, other candidates have emerged. They are Del Mar Mayor Carl Hilliard, a Republican, and Solana Beach City Councilman Dave Roberts, a Democrat.

“People are looking for who she would like to see as her successor, and I think they’re looking to the other supervisors for signals, too,” Roberts said.

Also in the race is Bryan McKeldin Ziegler, deputy county counsel and grandson of the late-Maryland Gov. Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin. A Republican, Ziegler has taken the unorthodox approach of pledging support for both the occupy and tea party movements.

Slater-Price’s top aide stressed that the supervisor, once a Democrat herself, had yet to make a final decision on an endorsement.

Her backing carries several potential promises and pitfalls. For the recipient, it would mean immediate exposure and the kind of connections only available to a two-decade incumbent supervisor with deep roots in the environmental and arts communities.

Hilliard and Ziegler, who are establishing their campaigns, praised Slater-Price for her service and said they would welcome her endorsement. Roberts, who has met with the supervisor and her staff, could use it to burnish his fiscal conservative credentials while touting his crossover appeal in the Republican-leaning district.

“Certainly it would help to make up for his lack of name recognition and virtually guarantee him a shot in the runoff election,” said Carl Luna, political science professor at San Diego Mesa College. “This is not a bad year for a Democrat running in the Third District.”

Roberts, the founder of a real estate management company and senior manger at an international nonprofit, pointed to his combination of public- and private-sector experience.

With Roberts’ help, Solana Beach has maintained a balanced budget and overhauled its pension system, he said. Supporters listed his work on commissions involved in transportation and the environment.

“I feel that he would not only carry on Pam’s legacy, but that he would bring this really levelheaded, fair and community-oriented approach to governance that’s really important when you are dealing with major land-use planning decisions,” said Dan Silver, chief executive of the Endangered Habitats League.

At the same time, the incumbent’s endorsement also could raise questions about Roberts’ fidelity to the Democratic Party and would leave him vulnerable to criticism as a status-quo candidate in what could become an anti-incumbent year.

“If the majority of his platform is ‘Let’s stay with the status quo,’ meaning he gets the endorsement, I just don’t think that’s going to play well in that district,” said John Dadian, a Republican consultant not involved in the race.

In the last several weeks, Roberts has appeared at functions alongside Slater-Price and has heaped praise on the county board and its pension fund for earning top credit ratings.

A recent fundraising invitation from his campaign listed as a supervisor’s responsibilities the promotion of public arts and neighborhood reinvestment, two issues dear to the incumbent. After meeting with her staff, Roberts expressed frustration with Danon for continuing to circulate brochures attacking Slater-Price on myriad issues.

“I think it’s reprehensible to pick on somebody that’s given over 20 years of their life to public service — particularly when they belong to the same political party,” Roberts said.

Danon countered that as a fiscal conservative he was lucky to have printed only 3,000 of the brochures instead of 30,000.

“If he’s going to embrace the policies and the actions of Pam Slater-Price, then he’s more than welcome to attach his boxcar to her train,” said Danon, the chief of staff to Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-San Diego.

Among Danon’s proposals are cutting supervisorial office budgets by 20 percent and jettisoning county pensions for all new nonpublic safety employees including supervisors and replacing them with a 401(k)-style plan. He also suggested eliminating the $5 million program in which supervisors grant taxpayer money to community groups.

Roberts, who previously declined to address the proposals, bristled at each of them. He questioned why Danon was politicizing a grant program that has done so much good for recipients, and challenged him to demonstrate where he has been able to hold down office costs like Slater-Price.

“I am not going to harm the citizens of the district by doing an across-the-board 20 percent reduction just because it might be a good sound bite,” Roberts said.

Roberts noted that the county pension fund was more than 81.5 percent funded, that the average county pension was about $31,400 and that it would take an estimated 17 years to make up the cost of overhauling the system. Danon and his wife are fully vested in the county pension system, Roberts added.

The district takes in parts of San Diego and Del Mar, Solana Beach, Encinitas and Escondido. The election is June 5.